1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automobile steering wheel. More particularly, this invention relates to a steering wheel comprising a body, a ringlike rim and a plurality of spokes connecting the former two and provided with a pad located between the boss of the body of the wheel and the upper portion of the spokes. The invention also relates to a steering wheel of the above type in which the pad is fixed to the inclined portion of each of the spokes arranged between the boss and the ringlike rim of the body of the wheel by means of attachment such as screws.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The steering wheel in FIG. 1 has previously been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,895,823. As shown, steering wheel WO comprises a body 1, a boss 2, a plurality of spokes 3, a ringlike rim 4 and a pad 5. The pad 5 is arranged between the boss 2 of the steering wheel body 1 and the upper portion of the spokes 3. The boss 2 is located near the center of the rim 4, and the spokes 3 extend obliquely and upwardly of the boss 2 so as to connect the boss 2 and the rim 4.
The pad 5 is extended on both sides with brackets 6. Each of the brackets 6 is fixed to a respective spoke 3 by a bolt 7 and nut 6a, each bolt being in a through-hole 3a drilled through a respective spoke 3 at a predetermined position.
With the above arrangement, the pad 5 is attached to the spokes 3 of the steering wheel body 1. In this case, the bolt 7 is inserted through the hole 3a of each obliquely extending spoke 3 so as to extend normal to the spoke length. The bolting is done in this manner to prevent physical interferences with peripheral devices such as the surrounding column cover and instrument panel which might occur because pad 5 is mounted in the wheel body 1 after the attachment of the wheel body to the automobile.
The above manner of mounting pad 5 has had certain problems. One such problem occurs when pad 5 is utilized as an air bag unit and is thus provided with an inflatable air bag. On such an occasion, the overall weight of the pad 5 becomes large. Therefore, because the spoke 3 is inclined, when an attempt is made to attach the bracket 6 to the spoke 3 at a predetermined position, much more time is required to align the nut 6a with the through-hole 3a of the spoke 3. The result is an increase in the manpower required for bolting.
Furthermore, as the spoke 3 having the bracket 6 attached thereto is inclined, bracket 6 tends to move along the inclined surface of the spoke 3. Such movement of the bracket 6 naturally takes place because the diameter of the through-hole 3a is made somewhat larger than the diameter of the bolt 7 so as to facilitate insertion of the bolt 7 into the through-hole 3. Once the pad 5 is bolted to the spoke 3 after the bracket 6 has shifted out of position along the spoke 3 as described above, then the vertical position of the pad 5 with respect to the steering wheel body 1 will deviate from the predetermined one; in that case, rearrangement of the pad 5 becomes necessary.